Connacht’s Good Work Undone By Heartbreaking Finish

Connacht were floored by Hosea Saumaki’s last-minute try as they lost their grip on an 18-point lead in a gut-wrenching 29-28 defeat to Leicester Tigers at the Sportsground.

This nine-try Heineken Champions Cup thriller ended in a chorus of boos from the home fans, but replays showed replacement Saumaki did not have a foot in touch as he put Tigers through to the knockout rounds.

An early Leicester surge, which saw Joe Heyes and Kini Murimurivalu both touch down, was eclipsed when Connacht hit back to lead 14-10 at half-time.

Captain Jack Carty converted scores from Tiernan O’Halloran and Cian Prendergast, and Tom Reffell’s early second-half yellow card was punished by seven-pointers from Kieran Marmion and O’Halloran for a 28-10 scoreline.

However, the Gallagher Premiership leaders rallied superbly, completing a pool double over the stunned westerners thanks to closing tries from Murimurivalu and the newly-introduced Charlie Clare and Saumaki.

A dominant start had Tigers 10 points up in as many minutes, their robust set-piece play setting the tone. They went close from a maul before prop Heyes plunged over in the second minute.

The visitors struck again when Freddie Burns used scrum possession to kick out wide for Fijian Murimurivalu to crash over past O’Halloran.

However, Burns missed both conversions and Connacht, who had a penalty miss from Carty, suddenly burst into life on the quarter hour mark.

A good forwards drive took them into the 22, and Murimurivalu’s defence was exposed in midfield as Matt Healy sent full-back O’Halloran in beside the posts.

Carty converted before solid maul defence from Ollie Chessum and the excellent Jasper Wiese, the eventual Heineken star-of-the-match, kept Connacht out.

The hosts’ persistence paid off in the 27th minute, a brilliant Bundee Aki offload putting Prendergast over and Carty converted.

Having absorbed some late Leicester pressure before the break, Connacht were quickest out of the blocks on the restart.

Flanker Reffell was sin-binned for offside before scrum half Marmion wriggled over from close range, Carty making it 21-10.

A slick wraparound move saw O’Halloran complete his brace – via a lovely offload from John Porch – and Carty’s boot duly extended the lead to 18 points.

Nonetheless, one back to their full complement, Tigers clawed it back to 28-17 thanks to a hard-earned Murimurivalu effort, the attack sparked by a Wiese turnover. Burns added a terrific conversion.

Connacht scrambled well to hold up both Reffell and Ellis Genge, but Tigers, stung by losing their unbeaten record to Wasps last Sunday, had more in the tank.

Having being previously penalised for obstruction at a maul, they got it just right to propel hooker Clare over in the 71st minute, with Burns also converting.

That gave Steve Borthwick’s men two bonus points, but they ended up with the maximum haul as Dan Kelly’s long pass exposed a tiring defence and Saumaki finished well in the left corner.

Asked about such a deflating finish for his side, Connacht boss Andy Friend said: “I probably can’t think of a more disappointing one to be honest. Oh so close, but not the win. It’s very disappointing.

“We showed our character, we rallied, we came back from ten points down to be up 14-10 at half-time. We came out after the break to get two very good scores, to be up by 18 points.

“You must pay compliments to Leicester, they never give up. They kept coming. We made too many errors and stopped playing, trying to protect the lead.

“We just talked it about it in the shed, the reason we got the lead was because we played the brand of footie we’d been training all year. In that respect, it is a tough one to take.”